Donna's Salon Utopia

Christen Bennett, in her early 30s, is a family friend of Gifty Serbeh-Dunn, owner of the Shea Butter Market company. For a time while in Ottawa, Serbeh-Dunn lived with Bennett’s family. Out of friendship and a deep belief in shea butter, Bennett tries to promote the Shea Butter Market products in the Ottawa region. “My mother’s done a lot of work in Ghana and throughout our childhood she always brought back raw shea butter for us to use,” says Bennett. “This is what Gifty has done with raw shea butter and all of the colours. I think it’s fantastic and makes it more appealing to everyone else. What Gifty has done with shea butter is great stuff. Different textures, creams, lip balms, it’s just a wonderful product and makes it more versatile for me especially. It’s healthy and also very natural. There should be a bigger demand for products like that with less process.” The lip balms are Bennett’s favourite products. She finds them moisturizing and the flavours are “fantastic.” For more ...

A 71-year-old woman in British Columbia (who preferred not be named) loves the Shea Butter Market products that Gifty Serbeh-Dunn owns. “I love them,” she says. “I’ve used pretty well everything that she’s had out. First of all I’ve used her shea butter and the moisturizing cream and the body lotion and the foot cream.” Before the BC woman tried the Shea Butter Market products, she had been having trouble with cosmetics. Her esthetician recommended extremely expensive products and she has found Shea Butter Market, far more affordable, as well as something that suits her sensitive skin when she uses the products that do not have a scent. “I will be 72, and like Gifty, I have nice smooth skin. I have no wrinkles. It’s genetics. It’s not primarily to do with shea butter, but it’s been working for me.” The BC woman’s favourite product is the natural shea butter that she also buys for other people. She appreciates that Serbeh-Dunn’s business also gives back to the women in Ghana who produce...

I CALLED GIFTY SERBEH-DUNN AS SHE WAS FEEDING HER CAT. HER BOYS WALKED BY THE CAT WITHOUT FEEDING HER. HER BIG BOY IS HER HUSBAND WAYNE DUNN WHO HAS A BUSINESS DEGREE FROM STANFORD. HER SMALL 7-YEAR-OLD BOY IS HER SON KABORÉ. SERBEH-DUNN HAS MANY THINGS TO DO SUCH AS FEEDING HER CAT AND RUNNING A SUCCESSFUL BUSINESS SHEA BUTTER MARKET. “SHEA BUTTER MARKET WAS INSPIRED BY THE WOMEN IN MY COMMUNITY AND ENCOURAGED BY MY HUSBAND,” SAYS SERBEH-DUNN. WHEN SHE WOULD TRAVEL TO HER HOMELAND GHANA, SHE WOULD GET SOME SHEA BUTTER AND BRING IT BACK TO CANADA. ANOTHER TIME SHE WENT HOME SHE ASKED PEOPLE THERE WHAT THEY WANTED HER TO BRING BACK FROM CANADA AND THEY SAID – “NOTHING, WE JUST WANT TO WORK.” HER HUSBAND IS INVOLVED IN CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY WORK. SHE RAN THE IDEA BY HER HUSBAND TO START A BUSINESS WITH SHEA BUTTER FROM THE WOMEN SHE KNEW IN GHANA TO HELP THEM TO GET WORK. MAINLY HER FOCUS WAS ON WHOLESALE ACCOUNTS. SHE CONNECTED WITH GREG SULLIVAN WHO LIVED WITH HER FAMILY 30 Y...

I will be doing an interview with Trey Anthony, star and creator of the "'Da Kink in My Hair" fame. This was a play that performed at the Princess of Wales theatre in Toronto and is also a television show on Global TV. I'm excited about interviewing her. Anthony has achieved a lot through hard work when it comes to bringing artistic expression to hair. The article will be for a magazine called Black Ink , however I am also hoping the information will help with research I am doing into beauty aesthetics that will follow from my book What Happened to the Afro? . Recently I have also done an article about Gifty Serbeh-Dunn's Shea Butter Market company that provides healthy beauty products. I will be posting that article soon on this site. Have a beautiful day!